Governance Structure

Each fall, the graduate students elect their executive committee to lead the GHS. The GHS can express graduate students’ concerns at departmental meetings. The GHS has 8 voting positions at the departmental meetings, usually filled from within the executive as per its constitutions. The society also holds 4 (at least 2 PhD and at least 1 MA student) seats on the department’s Graduate Program Committee. The GHS is also a member of the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU), from which it receives annual funding. All registered graduate students, both full and part-time, are welcome to attend and participate in the GHS’ monthly meetings.

Resources

The GHS office contains a wide variety of academic and professional resources, including graduate course evaluations, winning scholarship applications from recent years and past comprehensive exam questions. There are also numerous guides on subjects ranging from teaching techniques to campus resources.

Contact Information

Awards

The GHS executive committee puts out a call for nominations for and bestows three awards each spring.

The Distinguished Service Awards recognize substantive contributions to graduate student intellectual and social life in the Department of History over the past academic year, and are awarded to a graduate student and a member of faculty.

The Dana Wessell-Lightfoot Award (formerly the Long-Term Service Award) recognizes distinguished service by a graduate student over several years. Individuals who have successfully defended their dissertations in the department in the past 12 months are eligible, with the winning nominee being deemed to have contributed substantially to the department and the graduate student community through his or her involvement in GHS, departmental or other activities and projects. In bestowing this award, the GHS will recognize outstanding contributions to the culture of the department, and a longstanding commitment by the recipient to improving the graduate student experience in the Department of History.

GHS Distinguished Service Award – Graduate Student

2016-17 Simon Vickers

2015-16 Alexandra Logue

2014-15 Susie Colbourn

2013-14 Kathryn Segesser

2012-13 Jennifer Evans

2011-12 Seth Bernstein

2010-11 Jonathan McQuarrie

2009-10 Katie Edwards

2008-09 Peter Mersereau

2007-08 Alexandra Guerson

2006-07 Jennifer DeSilva

2005-06 Wilson Bell and Jennifer Polk (co-winners)

2004-05 Heather Dichter

GHS Distinguished Service Award – Faculty Member

2017-17 Professor Russell Kazal

2015-16 Professor Nicholas Terpstra

2014-15 Professor Russell Kazal

2013-14 Professor Steve Penfold

2012-13 Professors Franca Iacovetta & Russell Kazal

2011-12 No nominees

2010-11 Professor Lynne Viola

2009-10 Professor Lori Loeb

2008-09 Professor Doris Bergen

2007-08 Professor Barbara Todd

2006-07 Professor Carol Chin

2005-06 Professor Mark Meyerson

2004-05 Professor Ken Mills

Dana Wessell Lightfoot Long-Term Service Award*

2016-17 Véronique Church-Duplessis

2015-16 Jonathan McQuarrie

2014-15 Jennifer Evans

2013-14 Daniel Rosenthal

2012-13 Auri Berg

2011-12 David Stiles

2010-11 Denis McKim and Katie Edwards (co-winners)

2009-10 Mairi MacDonald

2008-09 Heather Dichter

2007-08 Sarah Amato and Ariel Beaujot (co-winners)

2006-07 Amy Milne-Smith and Michael Pettit (co-winners)

2005-06 Dana Wessell-Lightfoot

*The Long-Term Service Award was renamed the Dana Wessell Lightfoot Long-Term Service Award after the inaugural winner.